-Bridge of Soaring Clouds-
The cold wind blew across the great bridge, and the two swordsmen stared across at each other, one smiling, the other furious. Kisame chuckled, and Zoro's fists clenched around his swords.
"Well this is a true surprise," said Kisame, his voice somewhat dampened by the rushing air and the nearly one hundred feet between them. "I'd have killed you right away but I'm honestly curious what you're doing here. It's been barely a few hours since I last saw you down at sea-level. How did you, of all people, end up being the only ones to find us?"
"So you are the one I fought below?" asked Zoro, a sadistic smirk pulling his mouth upwards. "Funny, you look a hell of a lot different from your bounty poster."
Kisame's eye twitched in irritation, though it happened so fast that anyone else might have missed it. Zoro, however, felt his grin inch a bit wider.
"You mean that useless scribble the Marines called my likeness?" asked the Fish-man, thinking back to the cartoonish drawing of a vaguely bipedal shark with black scales. "It almost makes me feel sorry for the bounty hunters out here. Honestly it's a miracle they catch anyone at all, but you didn't answer the question."
"How'd we find you?" asked Zoro. "You picked the wrong guy to capture, that's all there is to it."
"The wrong guy…? Fire-Fist Ace?" He frowned and shook his head. "We left in the dead of night. We avoided all the guards, disguised our tracks, and ascended miles up the untracked cliffside to a place not located on any map only after completely erasing our presence. How did you know where to look for us when no one else did?"
"We had a piece of paper," said Zoro.
"...What?"
Zoro smirked. The wind howled. "Our captain had a magic piece of paper that points us in his direction. Your ninja tricks couldn't hide you from that, huh?"
All of a sudden, Kisame began running, kicking up a spray from the sodden stones as he charged down the bridge. Zoro joined him an instant later, and soon their swords clashed. The immense weight of Kisame's thickly-bandaged weapon bore down upon him as Zoro's muscles bulged with the strain of blocking the opening strike, but soon the two reached equilibrium.
"You gonna fight seriously this time?" asked Zoro, staring directly into the shark-man's beady eyes. "I'd hate to have to disembowel you again."
"Oh, I'll fight with everything I have," said Kisame. "After that, I'll head into the temple to see what's left of your friends. I doubt the others will leave much alive, but perhaps I can still catch up with them if I kill you quickly."
On some unspoken signal both men pushed, sliding back away from each other on the slick stones.
"Try me!" shouted Zoro. "No holding back!"
Kisame shrugged and brought both hands together. "Suit yourself."
[SUITON: KIRIGAKURE NO JUTSU]
[Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique]
The air thickened and set as an ice-cold mist rolled in to cover the battlefield. It solidified from the air itself with unnatural speed, leaving Zoro mere seconds to commit the terrain and his place in it to memory before visibility plunged to zero. Then he was alone in the mist.
He could still feel the cold mountain wind blowing against his skin. The fog hung motionless in the air regardless of the motion of its currents, stuck in place as if it were the calmest of spring mornings. He took an experimental sweep of his sword and a few steps here and there. Yeah. This wasn't just plain mist.
The bridge was only about twenty feet wide. One wrong step and he'd fall to his doom.
"This is it?" asked Zoro, warily eyeing the thick mists. "Trying to get me to trip to death? I expected more pride in your skills than this. This isn't swordsmanship, this is trickery."
Despite what Zoro had seen earlier of the man's position, Kisame's voice seemed to come from all around him, refusing to be pinned down as it danced here and there.
"You told me you wanted everything I had, swordsman, but I never said I was limited to the way of the blade. You see, you want a fight, but all I want right now is to see you dead on the ground."
The last words came from directly behind him, and Zoro whirled around just before Robin's voice whispered to him from nearby. "No. Left side."
He froze for a moment before spinning again just an instant before a weapon swung down and out of the mist. Catching the strike on just one sword drove him off-balance as he brought his other blade to bear. The Fish-man's strength was absurd, and he could barely hold against the attack. His arms shuddered, and Zoro finally noticed what he hadn't seen earlier. Kisame's blade had been partially unwrapped to reveal a loathsome mass of quivering scales.
Taking advantage of Zoro's shaky stance, Kisame pushed harder, and the blade inched downward further still. Zoro grunted with exertion as the Fish-man himself finally became visible.
"My sword, Samehada," grinned Kisame. "Beautiful, isn't it? A legendary weapon that is as much a living thing as I am."
"That's… not a sword, you idiot…"
"Yeah, I figured you for a purist. That's the deal with 'pure swordsmen,' they've got no imagination. The thing is, it won't matter either way once this cute little guy tears you to pieces."
The weight increased sharply, driving Zoro to the ground, and Samehada bit into the skin of his shoulder. Kisame laughed and slowly pulled the blade back, the razor-sharp scales opening bloody wounds as Zoro gasped in pain. Then, all of a sudden, Kisame stumbled and the pressure let up. Zoro was on his feet in an eyeblink, deflecting the mighty sword to the side and slashing through the mist. All he caught was a bit of Kisame's robe before he was alone once again in the thick fog. Panting, Zoro corrected his stance and returned to readiness, focusing his awareness all around him as blood dripped down his chest.
Silence.
"...You there?" murmured Zoro.
There was a pause.
"...Yes," said Robin's disembodied voice.
"That was you who knocked him off-balance?"
"...Yes, it was. Though I can't do it very well. Something about the man's sword is destroying my limbs whenever it passes by them."
"Good," said Zoro. "Stay out of this. I said it before, and I meant it. This one's mine."
There was no response. Wherever Robin was hiding, she chose not to press the issue.
A minute later, the fight began again.
-Bridge of Soaring Clouds-
-Temple Gates-
It was not long afterwards that the rest of the motley crew stepped down from the absurd bridge and onto the somewhat wider stone courtyard that stood before the temple's great outer gates. The Divine Tree loomed over them, perfect and proud. Those who had heard the story that Rayleigh had told several hours precisely might have momentarily thought back to descriptions of the twisted monstrosity that had been its progeny, but it was hard to imagine anything more different when you looked upon this beautiful, slightly glowing creation. The Divine Tree itself was warm, inviting, and absolutely without flaw.
The same could not be said for their surroundings. The wind howled around them, and their shoes slapped against the ground as they ran between the gates and into the temple proper, where the artisanry of its builders was evident in the intricate masonry that had been marred by fierce fighting in the recent past. They didn't really have a lot of time to admire the scenery, however.
"Are they going to be alright?" asked Naruto, casting a glance back towards the three who had stayed behind.
"They'd better be," said Law, running near the head of the pack. "We don't have the time to go back for them. You all know the plan."
Nami raised her hand. "About this 'plan' that I never agreed to," she said, "I really don't see what business I have fighting these guys!"
"M-me either!" exclaimed Chopper, who was sticking very close to Luffy and Naruto.
"Nobody expects you to fight one of Akatsuki on your own," said Sasuke. "But we have to keep these guys out of Rayleigh's way, and that means everyone fights somehow. If you can't take the heat then feel free to stay out of close-combat, but we're relying on all of you to support those of us who will be fighting directly."
Naruto reached out and poked Chopper in the side of the head, causing the boy to jolt in surprise. "Don't worry, little dude. You're sticking with us till the end of the road, so you'll have me and Rayleigh to keep you safe. Just do what you do best, man!"
This seemed to calm him somewhat.
"Hinata! You still can't see Ace, right?" asked Luffy.
"Right. There's still that room in the center that I can't see the inside of."
"Don't need to see him to know he's there," said Rayleigh. "As long as that Vivre Card keeps pointing in that direction, that's the way we need to go."
Hinata nodded. "Everyone! The two Akatsuki members in the next room are waiting in hiding, so don't be surprised by them! Hidan is hidden under the sand directly at the center of the first tended spiral! Kakuzu is hiding inside the standing stone that is second to our left once we enter the stone garden!"
"You hear that?" said Sasuke. "Everyone remember the matchups and be ready for a fight from the moment we enter!"
They burst through the archway like a hurricane. This artfully-tended stone garden was built on top of one of the thicker branches of the Divine Tree, and as such it stretched on into the distance, far longer than it was wide. A thin slit of open sky was visible at the top that let sunlight in from above. Though a stone walkway ringed the circumference of the room, the majority of the central area was taken up by an immense stone garden where sand, pebbles, boulders, and wood were arranged with painstaking care. They trampled through the peaceful room anyway, and though no one was visible Sanji led the attack the instant he was through the door. He dashed straight towards the boulder Hinata had pointed out earlier and launched himself off the ground.
A burning foot like an iron spear stabbed out at the standing stone, making contact just an instant after a dark figure slid out from the surface like a drawing becoming reality. Sanji's foot pierced the boulder, and it split right down the middle before scattering rock shards into the air around it.
Nami and Luffy peeled off from the crowd to circle around the enraged man in black robes, though only Luffy seemed truly ready for a fight.
Barely a second later Franky's hand shot off of his arm like a chained rocket, plunging straight for the center of the sand spiral ahead of them. His inhumanly beefy palm dug into the sand in a manner more reminiscent of a backhoe, and he smirked behind his sunglasses as he grabbed flesh. He ripped Hidan from the ground with a cackling roar, swinging the swearing and screaming zealot in a vertical arc that brought him slamming into the ground hard enough to make an impact crater. Even before Hidan could stagger back to his feet, Brook skittered lightly across the sand to stab at him with a flurry of piercing blows that had him rolling away from the sudden offense.
"Ah, screw this!" shouted Hidan, deflecting and dodging blows as he retreated towards Kakuzu's position. "I remember you fuckers! Old man, don't let these assholes get through here!"
Trafalgar Law smoothly slid into position in Hidan's path, one hand held out in front of him.
[ROOM]
"Aw, shitballs," cursed Hidan as the translucent dome washed over him.
"If you say so," said Law, and then he swapped Hidan's position with a stone that had previously been between himself, Franky, and Brook.
While the fights were beginning, Rayleigh, Chopper, and all four ninjas continued onward through the room, trusting their friends to stay safe and grasp victory. It had been debated whether it was better to leave a single ninja with each group of fighters to provide counsel on their enemy's possible abilities, but in the end it was decided that their talents, as well as their teamwork, were best reserved for dealing with the canniest remaining shinobi, Orochimaru and Danzou. As for their other companion…
"Hey little dude," said Naruto as he looked down at Chopper. "Can you feel this big tree yet?"
Chopper nodded, nervously agreeing before focusing his chakra outward. "Yes, I can. I still don't know what'll happen if I try to do anything to the wood of this tree, but I can definitely feel it. It's... warm somehow."
"Good," said Sasuke. "If all else fails, try and open the shell around the Divine Fruit yourself when we get there. It sounds as though Tobi might have some control over wood element chakra, and if he does then he probably already tried this, but we can't say for sure."
They moved through the slightly twisted room with no more challenges, passing through the archway on the other side and into a long, dim hallway lined on both sides with windows that had once held ornate wooden shutters. Some sort of battle had been fought in here recently enough that most of the shutters had been blasted off, leaving the hall open to the cold air.
"It's seeming more and more like Akatsuki murdered the original defenders of this place," noted Rayleigh.
Sasuke scanned the area, noting occasional scorch marks and spatters of blood that would probably have gone unnoticed by most.
"I'm not seeing any bodies," he said, "-which I suppose means they tossed them out the windows…"
From behind came a very familiar voice, shouting his battlecry as he charged after all of them. They didn't even need to look backwards to realize that Luffy had joined their ranks.
-Stone Garden of Roaring Tranquility-
Law watched Hidan carefully, as Brook and Franky encircled the man. Frankly, this was overkill in Law's opinion. Given his ability to permanently hinder people without technically injuring them he wasn't particularly worried about the man's regeneration. In fact, he was somewhat confident in his ability to handle the man himself, without the help of these two Straw-Hat odd-balls. Nevertheless, the advantages to letting those two take the front-line were easy to see.
Hidan began fighting furiously from the very instant he realized they were trying to hem him in, spinning, ducking, and lashing out with his scythe. Every dodge was turned into momentum for the next attack without the slightest wasted movement. He moved, in fact, like this was just a well-choreographed fight-scene and he was the only one of them who had bothered to practice the routine beforehand.
Seeing this, Law slightly adjusted his opinion of his own chances in single combat.
Brook overextended himself and Hidan's wicked blade cut deep into the thick coats surrounding his torso. Brook screamed in pain and shock, staggering backward and leaking fluid. Hidan recovered his scythe in a fluid motion and ran his tongue along the blade as he spun aside, only to frown and spit a glob of something onto the floor. For the first time he seemed to lose his rhythm and jumped back away from melee range.
"The fuck?!" he exclaimed, appraising the white fluid on his scythe with suspicion. "Milk?! What the shit is this?!"
Brook, completely unharmed, shrieked in surprise as he realized he was leaking. "Ah! No! My vital fluids!" Grabbing the bottle in question, he slurped uselessly at it, the glass shards rattling harmlessly off of his dead bones. "Oh, oh dear. It's everywhere! Just one moment while I take off my coat here, this really won't do."
Hidan watched with disbelief as the man shrugged off his oppressive and milk-stained winter coat to reveal the stick-thin body underneath.
"What… the… hell…? That shit ain't a mask?! You're a fucking skeleton?!"
Franky smirked down at his opponent and stepped up to answer the question while Brook was busy. "Yeah. Our very own freakin' skeleton, just for you. See, we heard about your special talents, blood-licker, and we aren't gonna be playing that game with you." He stuck a thumb in Brook's direction. "This guy's a skeleton." He slammed a fist into his chest, producing a solid metal clang. "And me? I'm a cyborg. Not a drop of blood between us, jackass."
Law didn't even react to the lie. He'd already heard in planning that 'Cyborg' Franky was vulnerable from the rear, but people who wouldn't shed blood easily were rare enough that they had to use what they got.
Hidan turned to his partner. "HEY! Kakuzu! Switch with me, will ya? These guys suck!"
Law refused to take his eyes off of Hidan. No one could control the battlefield as well as he could, and he could prevent the two Akastuki fighters from being able to coordinate as long as Luffy kept Kakuzu occupied. All they had to do was follow the plan and this would be an easy battle. Speaking of...
"Straw-Hat!" shouted Law. "Make sure you keep your opponent under control!"
A moment passed.
"Straw-Hat?!" he called.
No response. He glanced to the side. Luffy was gone, and Kakuzu was in the process of… splitting in half?
What the hell is he doing?!
-Inner Sanctum Assault Force-
"Dude!" called Naruto, as Luffy slid alongside them. "What the hell? You were supposed to stay back there and help fight those guys!"
"Wha?!" shouted Luffy. "No way am I gonna just stay back while Ace is in trouble!"
"What about the plan, man?! You want the five of them to have to take on those two freaks? They need your help, too!"
Luffy gave him an oddly disappointed sort of look. "Kind of a dumb plan if you thought I was just gonna stay back there and wait!"
Sasuke winced. "Okay, yeah, admittedly I should have seen that coming."
"So this is what we're going with?" asked Sakura. She looked around. All of the ninjas, as well as Rayleigh, Chopper, and Luffy, were proceeding on to the final encounter. "The seven of us against three S-rank shinobi… I mean, the odds could be way better, but… Rayleigh, you are going to be able to handle Tobi by yourself, right?"
"That's the plan," said the old man. "Me against the end of the world. Kind of nostalgic, I guess."
"Sure, right," agreed Sakura. "Hinata, we are still heading in the right direction, aren't we?"
Hinata nodded, her eyes still seeing everything around them. "Yes, there's only one path further into the temple, and we're traveling that way right now. Just ahead of us there will be a room with pools of water, and then it won't be long before we reach the inner temple."
"That's the room you said had the three people tied up in the stone coffins, right?" asked Sasuke.
She nodded again. "They're still there, but unconscious. I can't say if they could help us or not."
"We have to help them if they're still alive, right?" asked Chopper.
Rayleigh shook his head. "It's a trap. I know you kids are good folk, but I'm going to tell you ahead of time that whatever you see in that room you should assume those people are already dead. The last thing we need is one of our doctors getting caught in an explosion or something."
No one seemed happy with that statement.
"It's just ahead," said Hinata, pointing to an archway a couple hundred feet before them.
They burst into the room at a run and saw what lay beyond.
Inside it was as if the hallway had simply expanded, becoming a wide, dark room that was that was speckled with light. Pools of water sat here and there in the cool chamber, some tranquil and some set in artfully flowing tiered ponds. It felt peaceful and quiet here; a place for reflection, though they all knew better. Hinata pointed out the location of the three coffins that were resting in the pools of water, and they angled to avoid them. If this was a trap then they intended not to spring it.
Naruto shivered when the cool air hit his skin. "Man, something doesn't feel right," he said. "I dunno what it is, but-"
Hinata and Sasuke noticed the change in the room at the exact same time.
"Wait!" they both called out, and the urgency in their voice brought the rest to a halt.
Sasuke dropped his stance and scanned the room. Chakra was shifting in tremendous streams, appearing from nowhere at all in amounts that beggared the imagination, and it took a moment for him to even realize where it was all flowing towards. Then, with the sound of crashing water and rattling clay, three of the reflecting pools exploded into a shower of spray as the coffins abruptly shot into an upright position. His eyes saw the life force of the three people inside them snuff out like candles only to be replaced just as quickly by the swirling torrents of chakra that poured in until each casket seemed packed to bursting. It was so bright in his eyes' sight that it took him a moment to notice the labeling painted on the lids.
Three characters, one on each lid and each written in painstaking formal calligraphy.
ONE - TWO - GOLD
A sense of overwhelming fear swept through him, and it took just a moment longer than it should have to realize that Luffy hadn't stopped running. He charged straight into the room on a course directly through the three ominous coffins. That's when the first lid fell open, and the noise of clay shattering on stone was a crack of doom that shot through the room. The long-haired and gray-faced man who lurched out from inside the sarcophagus was visible for less than a second before he disappeared.
The Sharingan barely kept up with his movement as the walking corpse in lacquered red plate armor practically teleported to Luffy's position and smote him directly in the solar plexus. His torso caved inward from the brutal attack until the outline of the man's fist was clearly visible on the other side of Luffy's body. Then time unfroze. With a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sonic boom, the rubber-man simply disappeared, the air parting with great reluctance as he shot straight out the archway and back the way they had just come.
…
Back in the stone garden, the fight against Hidan and Kakuzu stopped for just a moment as Luffy made his violent return, shooting into the room like a bullet and slamming into a boulder so hard that it shattered into pieces. Perhaps it said something about the state of things that his comrades were merely happy to see him return.
…..
The only other person who had followed the strike was Rayleigh, and the others could only gawk dumbfounded at the place where Luffy had once stood. Then the second coffin lid crashed open, and a second man stepped out. His wild white hair framed a face that would have been pale even if it hadn't belonged to a corpse, and his blue-lacquered armor blended in with the faint reflections of rippling water in the dimly-lit room. Every one of the ninjas watched in horror as this man stepped down and scanned the room with dull eyes. There was no way that a Konoha shinobi could fail to recognize two of the founders of Konoha: the First and Second Hokage.
Sasuke swallowed back a nervous breath and stopped himself as he realized he had taken a step backwards out of reflex. Then he shook his head as he realized that this was precisely the correct choice in this situation.
"Everyone," he murmured, as if being quiet would keep them unnoticed. "We need to head back the way we came. Right now."
"Holy shit," breathed Naruto.
"Bad news, I take it?" asked Rayleigh, eyes locked on the two fighters who were now turning in their direction.
"These are…" began Sakura, gulping nervously, "-the strongest shinobi that Konoha has ever produced. And we need to get the hell out of here right now."
"T-this is the only way forward," said Hinata, nervously eyeing the door in the distance that might as well have been guarded by Death itself.
"We'll go out the windows and run along the sides or something," said Sasuke, backing carefully away.
Rayleigh, however, stepped forward rather than backwards. "I doubt that they're gonna let you out of here. I'll admit that as traps go this is a pretty good one. You all have to go on without me. If you can't fight Akatsuki head on, then just give up on the extermination plan and focus on-"
The third coffin lid slammed open, and the last of the resurrected warriors stepped out from his confinement. This, finally, was someone that everyone recognized, and Rayleigh's sentence stopped dead as all the breath left him in one horrified exhalation. Gol D. Roger stepped out of the sarcophagus, his vibrant red coat contrasted by the lifeless and sullen expression on his face. Two cutlasses were sheathed at his side, and a brace of pistols was vaguely visible beneath his jacket. The man's dead eyes passed over all of them in turn, and there wasn't even a glimmer of recognition as it took in Rayleigh's presence.
Sasuke gasped, only to have the breath knocked out of him as an invisible force gripped his heart and squeezed the air from his lungs. He and all of the others stumbled away from Rayleigh in horror. The grey-haired man was staring wide-eyed at the resurrected pirate with an intensity that bordered on mania, and shock blossomed around him in waves that left Sasuke almost weak-kneed. Then the shock turned to a fury so bright it seemed to burn the air itself.
Rayleigh had always had an aura around him, and it was only now that Sasuke realized that this was no mere charisma. The Sharingan saw the chaotic chakra washing off the old man's trembling body and sleeting through everyone around him like a wild genjutsu. Hinata and Sakura were even now reflexively defaulting to techniques to protect themselves, though they needn't have bothered. Those techniques weren't meant to protect them from something like this.
"How dare you," growled Rayleigh. "HOW DARE YOU?!"
Rayleigh disappeared, and his attack was followed shortly thereafter by the noise of air rushing in to fill his former position. Something over by the three dead gatekeepers exploded, but Sasuke couldn't even keep track of it. A body shot out of the melee, and then the center of the room exploded in impossible flames. There was the sound of gunshots, then hammer blows of fists striking flesh. The fighting had begun immediately at full intensity, and Sasuke quickly ushered the others back towards the doorway.
"Come on! We have to get out of here!"
"Shit!" cursed Naruto as he grabbed Chopper and burst into a run. "What the hell is this cheating shit?! What kind of made-up technique can bring back three monsters like that, huh?!"
Sasuke said nothing, gulping back his earlier fear. He had an uncomfortable idea of where, exactly, the material for at least one of the corpses had come from. Robin had mentioned a break-in at the Naval History Museum's exhibit on Gold Roger back when Akatsuki was still on Water-7. A bit of dried blood or hair on a musket-ball, coat, or knife and Orochimaru would have had all he needed. Come to think of it, Robin had even brought up the matter again earlier today, but she'd interrupted herself before finishing the thought.
Assuming they lived through this, he really needed to talk with her about that problem of hers.
"Will Rayleigh be alright without us?" asked Hinata, as they retreated towards the entrance.
Sakura clenched her fists. "It doesn't matter! We can't do a thing to help him! If we go back in there we'll just die as collateral damage without even touching those things!"
As if seeking to prove her point, a bullet grazed Naruto's arm, causing him to wince. He didn't dare slow down. Sasuke cast a glimpse over his shoulder and saw that Rayleigh had slammed Roger's arm to the side which was the only reason the bullet hadn't gone through his brain instead.
"The Bingo Book said that resurrected bodies are weaker than the real thing," said Sasuke, though he was aware he sounded worried. "-but I still don't see how Rayleigh can win here. Especially if these are undying copies of the original. We need to focus on getting out and finding another way-"
"Another way around?!" exclaimed Sakura. "There's five of us against Orochimaru, Danzou, and a guy who was strong enough to be their leader! I hate to say it, but we need to go back, help the others, then bring reinforcements!"
Before Sasuke could respond, there was an explosion behind them that slammed through their bodies. They stumbled forward from the solid impact of sound and pressure. When they looked up, Gold Roger appeared in front of them directly in between them and the safety of the doorway. One of his arms had been torn off during the fierce melee, but that didn't seem to be bothering him at all as he wordlessly charged forward, his cutlass raised for a decapitating strike. Sasuke raised his defenses, but the end result was clear.
So this was it. He was going to die.
Time seemed to slow down in the Sharingan's sight, and Sasuke idly noted that Rayleigh had charged in after Roger, aiming to knock the corpse away from his five young charges. It was going to be too late, however. Rayleigh's furious fist wouldn't arrive in time to save their lives. The last thing Sasuke noted before death came for him was Roger's dead eyes, made unnaturally red and black by the resurrection technique. They stared into his with neither malice nor pity.
Then, completely unexpectedly, he felt time slowing down further. Itachi's chakra shot through him like a jolt of adrenaline to the heart and the Sharingan transformed, swirling another pattern into place.
'Oh,' thought Sasuke, with a strange detachment, 'that's right.' He'd decided that the Amaterasu was probably set to activate when he faced an opponent he thought would kill him. He wasn't completely sure it would help here, and in either case the eyeball in question was unlikely to help him survive the next second.
It wasn't the Amaterasu.
[TSUKUYOMI]
Time stopped.